Harry Potter and the Broken Specter

Disclaimer: If I had a penny for every girl as I've seen as beautiful as you, I'd have one cent.

It was summer for not the first time on Number Four Privet Drive. And for not the first time, a young man sat at the window as the sun set behind the neighbor's house, looking on the horizon for something /anything.

"Where is she?" Sixteen-year-old Harry Potter grumbled to himself, turning away from the window for a moment to stretch his legs and pace around his small bedroom. It was July 30th, Harry noted, glancing at the calendar on the wall. Black squares marked the days past, and blue numbers counted down the days till Harry would be returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his seventh, and final year. The thought, that in a years time, he, Harry would be living on his own with no Hogwarts to look forward too was frightening, petrifying at best. He sighed heavily as he looked at his empty trunk standing by his door, longing to pack up his robes, his wand, his Firebolt and return to his friends and surrogate family in the Gryffindor house.

The Dursleys were gone for the evening, out at some fancy banquet for Uncle Vernon's company. As they had left, they had shouted specific instructions that Harry was to remain in his room and not touch anything other than the necessary kitchen utensils to make himself a sandwich when he was hungry. Hungry had passed an hour ago, and he was now well on his way to starvation. Starvation was not a pleasant experience. Just as Harry turned to take up his previous position at the windowsill, he felt a sharp pain prickle through his lightning shaped scar.

Cursing, Harry clutched his forehead and dragged his feet over to his perch, shut his eyes tightly and tried to ignore the feeling. He had been getting more and more of them every day as the death toll mounted higher and higher.
So many had died because of him, his parents, Cedric, Sirius, and now, joining the list of those passed, George and Molly Weasley (killed in battle) as well as Dean Thomas and Kingsley Shacklebolt. All of them dead in one final blow. A battle under St. Mungo's. He remembered their falls in perfect detail. Mrs. Weasley had been hit first with the same purple lash that had whipped Hermione Granger in the chest back in 5th year in the Department of Ministries. George had dropped his guard completely and ran over to attend to his un-conscious mother. At that moment, Lucius Malfoy, whom had recently broken out of Azkaban with little trouble, had taken the initiative to cast the final words the pair would ever hear. 'AVADA KEDAVRA!'

Dean had fallen while helping Neville seek out Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville had gained so much courage, and had surprised everyone when he grabbed Dean, (the only one available) to find her and give her a taste of what his parents had felt. As spells fell all around them, Dean and Neville snuck up upon Bellatrix as Neville shouted the words that had long since rung in his ears, 'Crucio!'. Bellatrix had screamed. A loud, piercing scream that still made Harry awaken in the middle of the nights in a cold sweat. She broke it, however, and returned the favor to Neville. As Neville lay their, writing in agony, Bellatrix had turned her wand to Dean. Dean fell, a hallow thump sounded as Kingsley Shacklebolt turned around from the two Death Eaters he had just knocked out and moved to attack Bellatrix. They dueled for a while, and just when Kingsley was getting the upper hand, Rudolphus Lestrange came to his wife's rescue and killed Kingsley from behind. Harry could remember Tonks shouting, 'Coward! Coward! You bastard!', at the pair as they fled the scene.

By the time Harry was shaken out of his day dreams, the pain had left him, only a tingling was left as a constant reminder of what he had done in that last battle. Harry had tasted blood. He had been dueling with Rabastan Lestrange until, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw him. His face was contorted with rage as he took out all the anger he had ever felt at that man all his life on Rabastan. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived had killed for the first time that night, and, Harry feared it wasn't going to be his last time.

No one had come out of that battle well. Hermione had come out quite shaken and un-conscious, having fallen into the unfortunate range of a Cruciatus Curse towards the end. Ron, Ginny, Fred, Charlie, Bill and Mr. Weasley had barley spoken. Their grief, loosing two of them in one night was beyond tears at that point. Harry had spotted Seamus Finnegan clutching the hand of a limp Dean in the Hospital Wing as Madame Pomfrey placed the dreaded white sheet over him. It was a sign that the end was still a long, long way away.

Harry suddenly, felt guilty. Guilty he wasn't there with the Weasleys, (all of whom had inhabited Grimmuauld Place at Harry's insistences. They had all wanted to keep it as the Order's head quarters, and Harry had inherited it after Sirius' literal fall) and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, planning, researching, spying and healing. It was his fault they were in this mess in the first place. But, no, Dumbledore had still forced him to return to the bane of his summers every year. He knew why now. Voldemort could not touch him here. He couldn't touch him if Harry returned to Privet Drive every year, every summer. It did not matter how long, but he had to be there. A shadow of dread had taken residence in the back of his mind this year, however, what was he to do when in eleven months time when he was released from his citadel, hidden away from Muggles, Hogwarts? What then? Was he going to be forced to still remain at Privet Drive while his friends all went out and made it on their own? Hermione, he knew, was going to become a teacher. It didn't take a genius to guess it either. Ron was to take after Charlie and become a curse breaker, and Harry was to keep on the path he had already headed down, and become an Auror.

A soft rapping on the window brought Harry back to reality once again. His snowy owl, Hedwig, with a letter clutched firmly in her claws tapped on the window. He opened the window and allowed her to sail into his room to perch upon his desk. On her way, she dropped the letter gracefully in Harry's lap before retreating to perch on the desk. Harry opened the hastily sealed envelope and read it quickly.

Harry,

Look down.

Harry looked out the window to see Hermione standing there grinning cheerfully in Muggle clothing, while Tonks sat in the front of a dark purple pick-up truck, honking the horn. He grinned back down at her.

"Hermione!" He yelled down to her through the open window. "What are you doing here?" he asked, half in disbelief, half in gladness.

"Nice to see you too," Tonks said dryly from the car, whilst rolling her eyes.

"Rescue mission," Hermione said, "I'll be up in a minute." Harry nodded and ducked his head out the window and shut it, and locked it.

"Come on, Hedwig," he said, gesturing the owl into her cage. "we're leaving now." Hedwig looked up at him with easy anticipation, anxious to leave the Dursleys, where she was cooped up more often then not. A few moments later, Harry heard a knock at his bedroom door.

"You can come in, Hermione," Harry said, closing Hedwig's cage behind her. He had just turned slowly to face her when she threw her self around Harry and hugged him tightly.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're coming this summer. It's just horrible there. The Weasleys never speak unless absolutely necessary, Remus spends all day in his room looking over a book of his or something, and every time you glance at Fred… it's just horrid! He's becoming like a shell, he's lost so much weight, he's… not even Fred anymore! Everyone is so solemn and melancholy. I just can't stand it! I feel so… useless." Harry smiled sympathetically and patted her back awkwardly.

"It's okay, Hermione, it's okay." Hermione let go and straightened up and put a cheery smile on.

"Well, let's get to packing then, it'll go a lot faster with two of us. Tonks said she'd come help, but she needs to stay on guard." Harry nodded as the two began piling all his things into his trunk. He paused momentarily as he reached for the photo album that sat on his bedside table. He handed it quietly to Hermione. He could tell she was tempted to open it. "Wait," he said, placing his hand on top of it. "I'll show you when we get to the head quarters."

"But I've seen it before," Hermione protested.

"No. Not this one." Hermione nodded mutely and placed it in his trunk. They resumed packing and barley spoke another word to each other.

When Tonks honked her horn twenty minutes later, they both jumped and laughed nervously. "I guess we're taking to long," Hermione said, getting up and opening the window again to yell at Tonks. "ALMOST DONE!" she called. Tonks flashed her a 'thumbs up' and Hermione nodded, turned, closed the window and sat on Harry's bed as she awaited him to lock his trunk.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Very."

"Shouldn't you tell your aunt and uncle where you went?" She asked cautiously.

"Hermione, how many times have I told you? They couldn't give a rat's ass where I go, if I lived, if I died. They'll be glad to get me off of their back for the rest of the summer. They always are." Hermione nodded as she and Harry headed out his room, down the stairs, and out of Number Four.

Hermione threw Harry's trunk into the back of the purple pick-up wordlessly and slid into the back, allowing Harry to sit up front with Tonks. Tonks glanced at him, giving him a different type of smile than he'd seen on her face before. Tonks' hair today was in her usual bubblegum pink pixie cut. "Music, kiddies?" she asked as she reached for the dial on the dashboard.

"Yes, please!" Hermione said eagerly. Once Tonks pressed the radio button, Harry half expected a news caster to tell them of some boring new weasel trainer at the zoo, or an oldies station playing The Beatles. Instead, they were greeted with a very familiar voice calling, "And we're back to 92.63, WAND FM. Brought to you by Weasley Wizard Wheezes, who are proud to announce that they are now holding a memorial sale of one of their founders. Buy 5, get 2 free, but only if you promise to use them on a teacher of your choice! They also wish to remind you all to donate to the top-secret fund, all proceeds will go to creating a memorial of those lost in the on-going war, and on a lighter note, wish a Mr. Harry James Potter an early 17th birthday! Happy birthday, mate! WWW is located at number 21 in Diagon Alley. I'm Lee Jordan, this is WAND, and this is The Weird Sisters singing their old hit, Double Bubble." Harry looked at Hermione and Tonks in disbelief.

"Lee Jordan?" He asked questioningly.

"Apparently he got into Wizarding Wireless Network after school. Started his own station," Tonks said, bobbing her head to the music. "And how has your summer been, Harry?"

Harry was tempted to tell her a lie, that it had been great, and he had done all his homework already and was awaiting the next school year. But the way she had looked at him when he got into the car. It had been a smile of the pitying sort, and a lonesome smile. He could tell she wanted to hear the truth, not a carefully thought out lie built to make her feel better.

"Lonesome," he answered finally. "Last summer was lonesome, but this one was worse. Ron never wrote. It's been two summers he's done this, now. First time was in fourth year, and now this summer!"

"The first one was a special case," Hermione reminded him. "This time… I've mentioned it before, they barley speak. I think you're being there will make it better for everyone.

"Harry, do you remember the old room off the library?" Harry nodded mutely as Hermione continued, "they painted it black, and placed pictures of those who've… passed away in it, with candles. It's a beautiful room. It's got everyone. From the first war, like Gideon and Fabian Prewett, the Bones, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom," she hesitated, "…your parents, and then all of the current ones…" Hermione couldn't bring herself to say their names. Harry had thought that she couldn't bear to mention their names. She had seemed very teary and over-emotional when he had hugged her in his room. As if she was about to burst into tears. He wouldn't put it past her.

"Well," Tonks said, breaking the silence that had since fallen, "the ride's long, and I'm hungry. Pit stop?"

So... Here begins my epic Harry Potter fanfiction. I'm honestly not trying to sound cliched or anything here by telling you all that this is my first Harry Potter fic in a long time, (try twoish years) and I wish for your reviews.

If any of you have read my previous Harry Potter crap, I have definatly matured. My dear friends find this my best work to date writing style wise, and like it. As M said, 'I like. I like a lot,' and he's generally not one to completley ignore all stable rules of the English language. And if you haven't read my previous Harry Potter works, I kindly advise you, don't. It will only lead to your ruin and my embarassment. I plan on deleating the lot of it. If you're an X-Men: Evolution fan, well... grins

Loff and cheese flavored strudels,

ASGT